The internet's most notorious shock site will add a little bit of pizazz to your boring email address.

Tired of people opening the emails you send them? An Australian IT consultant has just the thing. The consultant, who wishes to remain anonymous, paid $10,200 for the notorious domain back in 2008. He's now trying to recoup some of that well-spent money by offering @goatse.cx email addresses for $5 a year.

Established in 1999, Goatse was known mostly as the host of Hello.jpg, a picture of an extreme penetration practitioner known as "Kirk Johnson" stretching his anal sphincter to roughly the size of a cantaloupe, exposing the contents of his rectum to the world. While gazing into this tiny universe of horror, one can't help but think of the dire warning Nietzche left for us in Beyond Good and Evil. "And when you gaze long into an abyss," he wrote, "the abyss also gazes into you." The same goes for unnaturally distended arseholes.

Naturally, web users felt the need to subject their fellow human beings to the image. After it was hosted on goatse.cx, tricking people into visiting the site quickly became an international pastime. In 2004, the government of the Christmas Islands decided it had enough of being associated with the image and booted goatse.cx off the .cx domain. In 2008, our unnamed Australian bought the site from its Canadian owner on a late-night whim.

In honor of Johnson and his unique talent, the owner of the site has reserved the kirk@Goatse.cx email address for his use.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm about to link goatse.cx as the source of an article. This is a watershed for me, I'm going to savor it.

Grey Carter: While gazing into this tiny universe of horror, one can't help but think of the dire warning Freidrich Nietzche left for us in Beyond Good and Evil. "And when you gaze long into an abyss," he wrote, "the abyss also gazes into you." The same goes for unnaturally distended arseholes.

Oh Gods damned I pissed myself laughing so hard over this line my gf thinks I've finially gone off the deep end.

Man, dude, there is this one channel on dalnet called #anarchy where we like just fucking worship your goatse.cx page. we send like every lamer to that page whenever they ask us how to make bombs n' shit. I doubt you will but im gonna make a request for it anyway. If you could set up an email server and i could have a frighter@goatse.cx you would be god. i would worship you with all of my heart. I will pose for you.

At the time, I assumed it was "Goat sex" - ie, people having sex with goats - and just ignored the link. However, reading this article, I said to myself "damn - a cantaloupe? Really? This I have to see!"

And so I did. Yes, only two easy clicks and I saw the image that shook the world. My reaction?

You could not fit a cantaloupe in there! A Kiwi, sure. An apple, probably. A mango, maybe. But nothing in the melon family. Really, people, do you have any idea how large a cantaloupe is?

Mr. Kirk Johnson is impressive, don't get me wrong. But a cantaloupe? No way.

Bara_no_Hime:Fun fact: I had never been subjected to Goatse.cx before.

At the time, I assumed it was "Goat sex" - ie, people having sex with goats - and just ignored the link. However, reading this article, I said to myself "damn - a cantaloupe? Really? This I have to see!"

And so I did. Yes, only two easy clicks and I saw the image that shook the world. My reaction?

You could not fit a cantaloupe in there! A Kiwi, sure. An apple, probably. A mango, maybe. But nothing in the melon family. Really, people, do you have any idea how large a cantaloupe is?

Mr. Kirk Johnson is impressive, don't get me wrong. But a cantaloupe? No way.

*stops eating apple* Why do I keep reading this thread?

I must admit I thought the same as you because I know how big a cantaloupe is. However there was no way I was checking out the link.

I must admit I thought the same as you because I know how big a cantaloupe is. However there was no way I was checking out the link.

Did I spoil your snack? Sorry.

Well, no, not sorry - highly amused. :D

And actually you have to click at least two links to get there - Mr. Carter didn't link directly to porn, as that would be against forum rules. Instead he linked to a page that has the link to the infamous picture.

But yeah, while impressive you certainly couldn't get a cantaloupe in there. That's actually why I clicked the link - I just had to see if it was really that wide. It's not.

Never understood how people could be tricked into visiting a site called "goatsecx". Or why the owner decided it made more sense to treat those people to an image of a giant anus instead of... you know, goat sex. Was it meant to be a bait-and-switch for people who are looking for a site about goat sex? Was the domain just chosen because the owner thought it was funny?

I probably shouldn't be thinking this hard about it. He clearly didn't.

I must admit I thought the same as you because I know how big a cantaloupe is. However there was no way I was checking out the link.

Did I spoil your snack? Sorry.

Well, no, not sorry - highly amused. :D

And actually you have to click at least two links to get there - Mr. Carter didn't link directly to porn, as that would be against forum rules. Instead he linked to a page that has the link to the infamous picture.

But yeah, while impressive you certainly couldn't get a cantaloupe in there. That's actually why I clicked the link - I just had to see if it was really that wide. It's not.

Actually I saw that you were the last person to comment on the thread before I clicked on it and I thought "this should be good value" (you're reputation proceeds you - in a good way). I often snack on apples at work so it was just bad timing on my behalf.

I once happened to click on the website of a woman known as Latex Angel. Some of those images stayed with me for a long, long time; so I wasn't overly keen to check out Kirk Johnson's "work".